Living in Fear: The Mental Health Impacts of Immigration Policies and Enforcement on Latino Immigrants

Background & Purpose:

Anti-immigration policies have been passed by numerous states that have gained national and international attention.  In addition, more immigrants have been detained and deported during the Obama Administration than any other administration in US history (Pew Hispanic Center, 2013).  Previous studies have found that fear of deportation has negative mental implications for Latino immigrants (Cavazos-Rehg, Zayas, & Spitznagel, 2007; Gonzales, Suarez-Orozco, & Dedios Sanguineti, 2013).  Although policies like Arizona’s SB1070 have been mostly declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, many immigrants continue to live in fear as a result of the continued workplace and community raids and deportations.  Therefore it is necessary to continue to examine the impact immigration enforcement has on Latino immigrants.  The purpose of this paper was to examine how recent immigration enforcement strategies and the fear of deportation have impacted the mental health Latino immigrants in Arizona.

Methodology:

Data for this study were drawn from a pilot study (n=380) adult Latino immigrants living in Arizona during the summer and fall of 2015.   The sample consisted of 40% males and 60% females, with a mean age of 35; over 60% of the participants had less than a high school diploma; the mean number of years in the US was 18; and 65.4% of participants indicated their economic situation was “average.”   Fear of deportation was a 3-item scale (α= .82). The dependent variables in this study focused on participants’ perceptions of the impact of U.S. immigration policies on the daily lives of Latinos immigrants. Sadness and Fear were single items.  Depression was a 6-item scale (α= .94) and Anxiety was a 5-item scale (α= .92).

Multivariate OLS linear regressions examined the relationship between fear of deportation and the mental health of foreign born Latinos (controlling for gender, age, socioeconomic status (SES), level of education, US citizenship status, and years in the US). 

Results:

The results indicated that Latino immigrants who reported a greater fear of deportation were also significantly more likely to report increased: 1) Sadness (p < .001, CI(95%) .664, .972); 2) Fear (p < .001, CI(95%) .189, .644); 3) Depression (p < .001, CI(95%) .507, .930); 3) and 4) Anxiety (p < .001, CI (95%) .587, .939). 

Conclusions & Implications:

Participants in this study reported that as a result of increased fear of deportation, they have greater sadness, fear, depression, and anxiety.  This will have deleterious consequences for Latino immigrant families and communities.  Although future research is needed with larger samples of Latino immigrants, social service agencies must make greater efforts to outreach to Latino immigrant communities in order to further assess their mental health needs.  In addition, social work research must continue to develop culturally grounded mental health interventions that use Latino cultural strengths to address mental health issues.  Social workers must also use findings such as these to continue to advocate for an end to deportations and for comprehensive immigration reform so that Latino immigrant families no longer have to live in fear.